Baywatch is an action comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron based on the popular '90s TV series. Unlike the show, the movie takes things to R-rated levels. There's more violence than you might expect, with deaths played for laughs, gun play, and dead bodies (including gory photos of a body with big chunks bitten out of it by a shark). In one long sequence, a character has to manipulate a dead man's genitals (his penis and testicles are shown a lot), and another character treats the scene as if it's funny. There are other "gay panic" scenes for instance, a same-sex mouth-to-mouth scene and one character calls another things like "bitch," "princess," and "butterfly" to suggest that he's womanly and weak. There's no sex, but you'll see kissing, flirting, and crude sequences in which one character can't stop getting an erection and another can't stop looking at a woman's breasts. Female characters are dressed in very revealing costumes (male characters aren't, although they're often shown shirtless), and the camera pans up and down their bodies frequently. They also run in slow motion, a gimmick imported from the TV show. Strong language includes many variations of "fck," as well as "sht," "goddamn," and more. Drinking plays a part in a subplot, with a character neglecting his duties in order to drink shots, and drugs are the focus of the movie's main plot.
The film is directed by Seth Gordon, a North American writer, producer and screenwriter focused primarily on the genre of comedy. Among his early work for the film industry, he was "cameraman" in the documentary "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing" (2003) and later produced and edited the documentary "New York Doll" (2005) Jury at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. His first feature film as a director was Four Christmases (2008), a romantic comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon that had a budget of $ 80 million and raised more than double that figure. Three years later he directed Horrible Bosses (2011), a thrill comedy that featured performances by Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell in the central roles. The film had a budget of 35 million dollars and raised more than 100 million. His next work was Identity Thief (2013) a road movie comedy starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. Gordon has also directed numerous music and commercial videos as well as Distinguished episodes of the series "Community" (2009), "The Office" (2009), "Parks and Recreation" (2009) and "Modern Family" (2010). In addition, he is creator, screenwriter and executive producer of the series "Breaking In" (2011), issued by Fox.
WHAT'S THE STORY? In beautiful Emerald Bay, swimmers and beachgoers alike are kept safe by BAYWATCH, an elite band of lifeguards led by Mitch Buchannon (Dwayne Johnson). Along with second in command Stephanie Holden (Ilfenesh Hadera) and stalwart lifeguard CJ Parker (Kelly Rohrbach), Mitch keeps the beaches safe from drownings, shark attacks, and bands of roving thieves and perps. As summer begins, the Baywatch crew has three new recruits: studly yet reckless disgraced Olympian Matt Brody (Zac Efron), dorky yet sweet Ronnie (Jon Bass), and wide eyed Summer Quinn (Alexandra Daddario). But the newbies aren't destined to have an easy summer up on the tower: Nefarious businesswoman Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra) is making some very shady real-estate deals, just as envelopes of a drug called flaca keep washing up on the beach. Are they related? It's going to take some mighty teamwork and a few slow-mo runs up the beach to find out.
MOVIE INFO Rating: R (for language throughout, crude sexual content, and graphic nudity) Genre: Action & Adventure, Comedy Directed By: Seth Gordon Written By: Robert Ben Garant, Justin Malen, Damian Shannon, Barry Schwartz, Mark Swift In Theaters: May 25, 2017 Wide Runtime: 116 minutes Music: Christopher Lennertz Cinematography: Eric Steelberg Studio: Paramount Pictures Principal Cast: Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario